Associate Professor June Mack's films have garnered 22 international awards in film festivals around the world. Her work has been seen on national television as well as festival screenings in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Slovenia and across the United States. She holds degrees from Hollins College, Florida State University, and Harvard University. Specializing in community arts, Mack has been a playwright, theatre director, composer and choreographer for over 30 years. She has worked on more than 50 theatrical productions and 70 films. Her latest film series, The Youth Violence Project, is currently being used by over 290 youth agencies in 37 states and seven countries.

HANK WILLIAMS, SR.: ALONG FOR THE RIDEThis documentary contains interviews of ex-band members of the late, great country music star. Fifty-one years after Hank Williams' death his popularity and musical influence are as strong as ever. Those who were with him as his career unfolded -- from school house concerts in rural Alabama to international acclaim as one of country music's greatest stars -- look back at his short life and magical rise to stardom. This piece was distributed nationally by the National Educational Telecommunications Association. See the press kit and photos.

THE YOUTH VIOLENCE PROJECT This project encompasses two films produced by filmmaker June Mack and her students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This 5-year project is an exploration of the roots of youth violence in today's society. During the first year, faculty and students interviewed people who were involved in youth violence including gang members, incarcerated youth, teachers, students, police, parents, youth services personnel, and psychologists. During the second year, the filmmakers studied the interviews and isolated 3 major themes: 1.) violence begets violence, 2.) followers and leaders, and 3.) boredom and addiction. Mack and her students wrote a screenplay based on the true stories from the interviews . During the third year, a crew of 30 students worked with 80 volunteer actors to bring these stories to life. By the time the dramatic film was completed, over 200 people from the Birmingham area had participated in some way in this project. During the 4th year, the original interviews were edited into the documentary film titled Voices of Youth Violence. This film serves as a companion piece to the narrative/dramatic film. During the 5th year, Mack and her students traveled across the U. S. giving violence prevention workshops using the films as a point of departure to encourage dialogue among youth, their parents, and youth agencies. Together these films are designed as a comprehensive teaching tool to help viewers experience youth violence both subjectively (through the dramatic film) and objectively (through the documentary). Currently, over 290 agencies in 37 states and 7 countries are using these films and educational materials. This comes at a time when results from other forms of intervention are lacking significant success. Mack says,"In this way, we hope to assist other communities that face the difficult reality of alarming increases in youth violence and share our concerns for the safety and future of young people." www.youthviolenceproject.org

LEST WE FORGET: A FRENCH VILLAGE RECALLS 1944 This film is a personal documentary about the filmmaker’s family. It is the story of the journey of the Smith-Morgan family of Springville, Alabama, in response to an invitation to be honored by the small French village of Vibraye. On May 21, 1944, Captain Malcolm A. Smith’s P-47 Thunderbolt fell out of the skies over northwestern France. The U.S. Army Air Corps, suspecting weather trouble, informed Smith’s family in Alabama of the loss, but kept his status as “missing in action” for another two years before acknowledging he would never return. Sixty years later, Smith’s sister Marianne Smith Morgan, received a letter from a Frenchman who said he had discovered what really happened on that fateful Sunday afternoon. Not only was Smith killed in action—in a dogfight with a German warplane—but he had become a beacon of hope for the villagers of Vibraye, a tiny community near his crash site. Captain Smith was the filmmaker's uncle. For sixty-eight years the village has remembered a young pilot who died in their midst on a Sunday afternoon. Though unidentified, he became their symbol of freedom and escape from occupation, and to this day, they have never forgotten. Read more about this film.